Midterm evaluation of the resources for the awareness of population impacts on development (RAPID IV) project (936-3046)

Mid-term evaluation covers the period 1991-10/94. Overall, achievements of the project, which has operated in 19 countries with 2 more soon to be added, have been impressive. The project has been effective in raising awareness among national leaders about the relationships between population growth and development, strengthening the commitment of national leaders and managers to implementing voluntary family planning programs and allocating resources to increase access to services, and developing a consensus for population policies at different management and technical levels of government and in the private sector. Moreover, the project is substantially engaged in several other key policy issues, such as FP program decentralization, AIDS, program cost effectiveness, and placing FP service delivery in the context of reproductive health and child spacing. The project has been weaker in institutionalizing capability to conceive, plan, and implement population policy, focusing rather on training in the use of RAPID models and presentation techniques, though even here documentation of the training process, including needs assessments, curriculum development, and evaluation, has been weak. Additionally, the evaluation of the project in general has only recently been a focus. USAID Missions value the project very highly and indicate that the project is either extremely or very responsive to Mission needs, the project approach has been very appropriate, and project staff are very skilled. Major recommendations are to transfer to host country counterparts the ability to develop and not merely to present RAPID models, increase emphasis on building host country institutional capability, establish an evaluation framework for the project, and form a technical advisory group.